The Life of John Marshall Volume IV Part 51

[1147] Act of April 6, 1808, _Laws of New York, 1807-09_, 313-15.

[1148] 4 Johnson's _Chancery Reports_, 51, 53.

[1149] _Ib._ 152.

[1150] _Ib._ 154.

[1151] Act of Feb. 18, 1793, _U.S. Statutes at Large_, I, 305-18.

[1152] 4 Johnson's _Chancery Reports_, 156.

[1153] 9 Johnson, 507 _et seq._

[1154] 4 Johnson's _Chancery Reports_, 158-59.

[1155] 17 Johnson, 488 _et seq._

[1156] See _supra_, 240-50, 284-86.

[1157] Story to Fettyplace, Feb. 28, 1821, Story, I, 397.

[1158] Records Supreme Court, MS.

[1159] The case was first docketed, June 7, 1820, as Aaron Ogden _vs._ Thomas _Gibbins_, and the defective transcript was filed October 17, of the same year. When next docketed, the t.i.tle was correctly given, Thomas Gibbons _vs._ Aaron Ogden. (_Ib._)

[1160] Act of April 19, 1811, _Acts of Territory of Orleans, 1811_, 112-18.

[1161] Act of Nov. 18, 1814, _Laws of Georgia, 1814_, October Sess.

28-30.

[1162] Act of Feb. 7, 1815, _Laws of Ma.s.sachusetts, 1812-15_, 595.

[1163] Act of June 15, 1815, _Laws of New Hamps.h.i.+re, 1815_, II, 5.

[1164] Act of Nov. 10, 1815, _Laws of Vermont, 1815_, 20.

[1165] Ohio, for example, pa.s.sed two laws for the "protection" of its citizens owning steamboats. This act provided that no craft propelled by steam, operated under a license from the New York monopoly, should land or receive pa.s.sengers at any point on the Ohio sh.o.r.es of Lake Erie unless Ohio boats were permitted to navigate the waters of that lake within the jurisdiction of New York. For every pa.s.senger landed in violation of these acts the offender was made subject to a fine of $100.

(Chap, XXV, Act of Feb. 18, 1822, and chap. II, Act of May 23, 1822, _Laws of Ohio, 1822_.)

[1166] Niles's _Register_ for these years is full of accounts of the building, launching, and departures and arrivals of steam craft throughout the whole interior of the country.

[1167] See Blane: _An Excursion Through the United States and Canada_, by "An English Gentleman," 119-21. For an accurate account of the commercial development of the West see also Johnson: _History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce_, I, 213-15.

On March 1, 1819, Flint saw a boat on the stocks at Jeffersonville, Indiana, 180 feet long, 40 feet broad, and of 700 tons burden. (Flint's Letters, in _E. W. T._: Thwaites, IX, 164.)

[1168] Blane, 118.

[1169] _Annals_, 14th Cong. 2d Sess. 296.

[1170] _Ib._ 361.

[1171] See debate in the House, _ib._ 851-923; and in the Senate, _ib._ 166-70.

[1172] _Ib._ 924-33.

[1173] March 1, 1817, _ib._ 1052.

[1174] Veto Message of March 3, 1817, Richardson, I, 584-85.

[1175] Monroe gingerly referred to it in his First Inaugural Address.

(Richardson, II, 8.) But in his First Annual Message he dutifully followed Madison and declared that "Congress do not possess the right"

to appropriate National funds for internal improvements. So this third Republican President recommended an amendment to the Const.i.tution "which shall give to Congress the right in question." (_Ib._ 18.)

[1176] _Annals_, 15th Cong. 1st Sess. 451-60.

[1177] _Ib._ 1114-1250, 1268-1400.

[1178] "All the difficulties under which we have labored and now labor on this subject have grown out of a fatal admission" by Madison "which runs counter to the tenor of his whole political life, and is expressly contradicted by one of the most luminous and able State papers that ever was written [the Virginia Resolutions]--an admission which gave a sanction to the principle that this Government had the power to charter the present colossal Bank of the United States. Sir, ... that act, and one other which I will not name [Madison's War Message in 1812], bring forcibly home to my mind a train of melancholy reflections on the miserable state of our mortal being:

'In life's last scenes, what prodigies surprise!

Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise.

From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driv'ler and a show.'

"Such is the state of the case, Sir. It is miserable to think of it--and we have nothing left to us but to weep over it." (_Annals_, 18th Cong.

1st Sess. 1301.)

Randolph was as violently against the War of 1812 as was Marshall, but he openly proclaimed his opposition.

[1179] _Ib._

[1180] Italics the author's.

[1181] _Annals_, 18th Cong. 1st Sess. 1308.

[1182] _Ib._ 1310-11. The bill pa.s.sed, 115 yeas to 86 nays. (_Ib._ 1468-69.)

[1183] See _infra_, 535-36.

[1184] See _infra_, chap. X.

[1185] See vol. I, 310-12, of this work; also Marshall: _Life of George Was.h.i.+ngton_, 2d ed. II, 105-06, 109-10, 125. And see Madison's "Preface to Debates in the Convention of 1787." (_Records of the Federal Convention_: Farrand, III, 547.) "The want of authy. in Congs. to regulate Commerce had produced in Foreign nations particularly G. B. a monopolizing policy injurious to the trade of the U. S. and destructive to their navigation.... The same want of a general power over Commerce led to an exercise of this power separately, by the States, w^{ch} not only proved abortive, but engendered rival, conflicting and angry regulations."

[1186] _Records, Fed. Conv_.: Farrand, II, 143. The provision in this draft is very curious. It declares that "a navigation act shall not be pa.s.sed, but with the consent of (eleven states in) <2 d.="" of="" the="" members="" present="" of=""> the senate and (10 in) the house of representatives."

[1187] _Ib._ 135, 157, 569, 595, 655. Roger Sherman mentioned interstate trade only incidentally. Speaking of exports and imports, he said that "the oppression of the uncommercial States was guarded agst. by the power to regulate trade between the States." (_Ib._ 308.)

Writing in 1829, Madison said that the commerce clause "being in the same terms with the power over foreign commerce, the same extent, if taken literally, would belong to it. Yet it ... grew out of the abuse of the power by the importing States in taxing the non-importing, and was intended as a negative and preventive provision against injustice among the States themselves, rather than as a power to be used for the positive purposes of the General Government, in which alone, however, the remedial power could be lodged." (Madison to Cabell, Feb. 13, 1829, _ib._ III, 478.)

[1188] See _Monthly Law Reporter_, New Series, X, 177.